Far Away

CHAPTER XXI

“Aaaahhh!” shouted Jack as he woke up from one of his frequent nightmares. He looked around as he shot up to a sitting position, waking the sleeping mare beside him. Daring grunted and dropped back to sleep like a log. It had been quite a tiring few days with all the chaos that had been happening around the place. Jack noticed that he was dripping with cold sweat. The clock beside the bed told the time of 3:57am. Jack uncovered himself and shivered in the cold air. He walked over to the small desk nestled in the corner of the room and sat down on the chair, while grabbing a pen and some blank sheets of parchment that had been sitting on the desk.

Jack spent long minutes rearranging his thoughts, so they would translate onto paper coherently. He set his pen onto the page, and let the words flow. The fine curvatures and sweeps of letters filled the page rapidly. He had to get dark thoughts out of his mind. The writing told of dreams. Nightmares. Personal fears, confessions, snapshots of the darkest moments in his life. The scratching of pen against parchment filled the room as the pen danced across the page.

Jack was in his own world, oblivious to what is happening in the world around him. He felt a warm breath on his shoulder suddenly. Jack flinched as he quickly rolled the parchment away and tucked it onto a drawer. He slowly turned around and looked into the magenta eyes that were watching him intently. “Why are you he – aren’t you supposed to be sleeping?” choked Jack.

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep those words a secret. Can we talk?” asked Daring. She saw everything. It was not a pretty sight, a stallion with a broken mind before her, his confessions and personal worries cast onto parchment to vent his struggles. Jack nodded and walked over to the bed and sat down. Daring did the same, next to him, wrapping her left wing around him. Jack sat silent for minutes, a broken mind he had. A mind that was never revealed to anypony.

“Ok. Can I confess something to you?” Jack asked tentatively.

“Go ahead,” Daring urged.

“I used to have somepony I loved,” he started, “She was a great mare but she always complained to me about not spending enough time with her. I was always out wandering around in strange places, pursuing my own interests. It never came to mind that she had feelings too. Feelings that I could not decipher. I swore to myself after we broke up that I would never allow anypony to tug my heart again. It broke me. It made me realise that I didn’t have a heart,” a tear fell down his cheek as his words wavered.

Daring didn’t know how to respond. It was the first time that any of this had ever happened to her. She did not know whether to comfort him, or do something else. She was scared in situations like this. It tugged her heartstrings that Jack, of all ponies, had something so deep to confess. Daring felt empathetic for him as she also felt his hurt. A scar that would show forever. Daring moved forwards into Jack and embraced him, her head resting on his shoulder.

“I love you and nothing will break that,” whispered Daring into Jack’s ear.

“You will understand one day,” Jack sobbed painfully, “I am not a good pony.”

Daring didn’t move as she clenched onto Jack. He embraced Daring tightly for support as tears gushed down his cheeks, wetting the carpet below them. They were frozen in the position for what seemed like hours to Jack. The cold wind came through the cracks under the balcony door and cooled the room as it rustled their fur gently.

Jack leaned back and gently pushed Daring aside as he tried to tuck himself under the covers and fall asleep. Sleeping was a struggle most of the time. He was plagued by nightmares and much more frequently now than ever before. He felt Daring beside him again, the warmth of her body as she leant against him lightly. He relaxed, now knowing that he was being supported. Sleep came easily now as he relaxed and felt his eyes close leaving in a realm of darkness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jack woke up in the morning groggily. He tried to turn but he was restrained by the sleeping mare beside him… again. She was clutching onto Jack tightly as she slept peacefully. Jack slowly pulled her hoof away from his body and nearly succeeded but voice stopped him, “Come on, five more minutes,” muttered Daring who was nestled in Jack’s chest. Well, Jack couldn’t deny the request anyways since her forelegs were clamping him down. If you can’t fight it, join it.

Five minutes passed quickly for Daring. She felt like she was in heaven but grudgingly hopped out of bed with Jack after the five minutes passed. ‘Why does he have such a sharp sense of time?’ Daring thought angrily, ‘I could’ve had an hour more in bed.’ She put on her clothes as Jack put on his trench coat and concealed his rifle under it. They silently slipped out of the inn and walked briskly to the Golden Oak Library as the cold wind blew against them.

They arrived after trotting through the slumbering town for a good few minutes. Jack knocked on the door, then stood aside, awaiting an answer. To his surprise, it wasn’t Twilight who answered the door, it was Spitfire. “Hello Spits, where’s Twilight” And why are you here?” asked Jack curiously.

“Twilight is resting upstairs, she is exhausted and I have a hangover,” growled Spitfire, “Come in before I slam the door in your faces.”

Spitfire grinned at her own comment. Jack stepped into the library, a blast of warmth welcomed him. Daring followed him into the library to see the five Wonderbolts lounging around, scattered everywhere.

“Ok, let me explain,” said Spitfire, “You know when you drink a bit too much alcohol and you regret it the moment you step out of the pub?”

Jack nodded.

“Well, that’s what happened here,” she said.

“Impressive, especially Blaze on her drinking skills,” Jack smirked, “but alas, I have some business to take care of.”

“Ok, Jack,” replied Spitfire as she trotted back to her corner and picked up a book which she buried her head into.

Jack snorted as he walked up the stairs and arrived at a door with a brass plaque displaying, ‘Twilight.’ Jack knocked softly, not wanting to wake Twilight up if she was still asleep. To his surprise, the door opened almost immediately and he saw a little dragon standing to the side of it.

“Who are you?” it said in a matter-of-factly way.

“Uhh… Jack and I’m here to speak to Princess Twilight if she is here,” said Jack to the little dragon.

“Twilight, you have a visitor!” it called out.

“Coming, Spike!” she replied.

Twilight rushed to the dormitory door when she saw Jack waiting for her patiently.

“Hello,” she said.

“Hi,” said Jack, “We require your assistance to find some further information on the ‘Terra Elemental Amulet,’”

“Oh,” she gasped, “has it gone missing again?”

“Yes.”

Twilight rushed downstairs with Jack and Daring following her as she looked through her meticulously organized book shelves. She had a look of frustration on her face when she looked at shelf after shelf of books.

“Can’t find it god dammit!” she exclaimed.

Spitfire stood up from her corner and walked over to Twilight.

“Trying to find something?” she asked.

“Ah! That’s the one! Twilight said as she ripped the book Spitfire was reading out of her hooves. She brought the book to a pedestal in the centre of the room and poured over pages of information quickly as she rapidly flipped the pages with her magic. “Aha! Got it!” she said with excitement as she handed the book on the page about the amulet to Jack. Spitfire looked over his shoulder at the amulet.

“That’s the amulet that we have been trying to locate for years now,” she commented.

“Really?” asked Jack as he scanned the paragraphs.

“Yeah.”

“Well, Daring and I have been trying to find it too, it was within our grasps but Kasha tossed it to an eagle and it flew away with the amulet,” said Jack.

“Who’s Kasha?” asked Spitfire.

“Were you paying any attention to my stories last night, Spits?”

“Uhh… no,” replied Spitfire.

“Dammit,” cursed Jack.

“Well, you see…” Jack trailed off into one of his life stories again, this time about when he was travelling in the eastern deserts when he was attacked by Kasha’s mercenaries. It took quite a lot of repeating to get the message into Spitfire’s head. “…and that is all you need to know about Kasha,” he ended, exhausted.

“Well, since we’re on the same page, do you want to come check out our academy? We’ve got some pieces of the puzzle about the amulet in our archives,” asked Spitfire.

“Sure!” replied Jack excitedly.

“Well, I can visit the princess with you on the way and that problem would be sorted too,” Twilight interjected.

“One question, why is Dash… um…” Jack trailed off before he could ask the whole question to Twilight.

“Well,” started Twilight, “It all happened a year ago at the Grand Galloping Gala when Dash actually wanted to go for once. I got her a ticket so she could go with me. She didn’t really tell me her intentions but the moment we got in and saw the Wonderbolts, Dash rushed to Soarin. Those two have been close for a year now and I really don’t know how Dash got Soarin to like her, not that she is an average mare, she’s definitely not, but why her of all ponies?”

“Well, we can discuss that on the morrow but we need to now get some breakfast and get our means of transport to Canterlot,” said Spitfire formally. She clearly was a bit sensitive on the subject. Workplace relationships were supposed to be secretive.

The rest of the day was a matter of finding information, booking train tickets and writing to Princess Celestia to alert her of the fact that they were going to Canterlot tomorrow. It was not a special day but the exhausted Wonderbolts got a whole say’s sleep at least.